Releasing & Encompassing

I am culling books again today, 18 more books were released to new homes last time. Now another half dozen are on the way. I am enjoying releasing what I can, what I no longer want or need, or love yet know I will not read again.  . . . still marveling at so much stuff in my world. . .

The act is, also, bringing more of Rilke to me. Of the 5 books now scattered on my bed, 3 have Rilke quotes I see leafing through them. Is it that so many people are quoting him or am I just drawn to those who do? Moot point perhaps. . .

So. . .  these are his quotes and poem that found me today while snuggled under a teal blanket that came all the way from China . . . drinking Yerba Mate tea in a clear glass mug . . .

"I have faith in all those things
that are not yet said.
I want to set free my most holy feelings.
What no one has dared to want
will be for me impossible to refuse."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So rescue yourself from these general themes and write about what your everyday life offers you; describe your sorrows and desires, the thoughts that pass through your mind and your belief in some kind of beauty—describe all these with heartfelt, silent, humble sincerity and, when you express yourself, use the Things around you, the images from your dreams, and the objects that you remember.  If your everyday life seems poor, don’t blame it; blame yourself; admit to yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth its riches; because for the creator there is no poverty and no poor, indifferent place.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The hour is striking so close above me,
so clear and sharp,
that all my senses ring with it.
I feel it now: there’s a power in me
to grasp and give shape to my world.


I know that nothing has ever been real
without my beholding it.
All becoming has needed me.
My looking ripens things
and they come toward me, to meet and be met.
Rainer Maria Rilke, The Book of Hours